Dave Winer, 56, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and editor of the Scripting News weblog. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

On Tuesday we had a real earthquake in NYC, and on Sunday it looks like we're going to have a hurricane.

People here didn't understand what an earthquake is about, and luckily (knock wood) so far there have been no aftershocks, and apparently there was no major damage. You can't always tell how much damage there was in an earthquake. But hurricanes, a totallly different matter altogether.

I went to college in New Orleans where hurricanes are a way of life this time of year. We had no direct hits while I was there, but we did have a couple of near-misses.

What worries me is if there's an evacuation, how it would work. In the Gulf, people know how to evacuate. In New York, even in the summer with the city relatively empty, the question is How? And Where?

Life will not be normal here on Sunday and Monday, but people aren't getting that.

Honestly I have no clue what I'm doing and where I'm going and if the East Village is a good place to wait it out.

All the cowpaths paved. And false starts. And living-in-the-future type moments.

I remember seeing my first Apple II and thinking that's going in the right direction and then the Mac was all the way there (well almost). The Laserwriter and built-in networking. The Mac came pretty close to being the Internet in the 80s before everything went haywire.

He is more than a visionary, which is rare enough.

Just the other day I was writing about Steve Jobs, without actually naming him. Here's the part.

"One of the really amazing things about New York City is the extent to which the city anticipated its own growth. It built elevated rail systems to neighborhoods that didn't exist. A grid that went into the Bronx when the city barely made it to 14th St. A huge city park in the middle of nowhere. Tech guys have to think like that. So few do. Seriously.

"People who do this think this way should win awards. It goes beyond design. It isn't a matter of how rich you are. It's how boldly you think, and then execute to that vision. And also how flexible you are, when you learn things about your framework that you didn't envision (so it goes beyond vision as well). And you not only let other people play, but build that in from the start."

There's a lot of that kind of thinking behind the Apple of today. A lot to the story that's yet to unfold.

As Woz says, they'll be talking about the way Steve Jobs thinks about computers for 100 years, maybe more.

One thing's for sure, our lives would have been a lot less interesting without him.